An analgesic analogy

Last Thursday night’s rehearsal was amazing! It was also a very good example of Maricellos’s recent post, “Musical Medicine.” For the entire day last Thursday I felt tired, sluggish and basically had to drag myself to orchestra rehearsal in the dreary rain that evening. But at some point during rehearsal, even though the weather hadn’t changed, my headachy blahs and naggy little hurts somehow magically disappeared as I contentedly played through our not-too-difficult holiday repertoire. And how neat is this? … I finally get to play something col legno for a few measures in “The Little Drummer Boy.” Fun.

Maestro, who is known for his unique phrases and sometimes comical explanations, gave the string section a most effective and descriptive analogy to illustrate a certain bowing technique that he wants us to use in Drummer Boy. He likened the bow to a Wave Runner slapping and skipping on the wave swells and troughs. I just couldn’t stop grinning at that image as I splashed my way through that section of the music. (The grinning itself actually helped ease my headache).

Just say yes to a music Rx!